Unit research · Colorado GMU 20

GMU 20 — Colorado

57% public across 772,318 ac. Real backcountry here — 35% of the public land sits more than a mile from any road. Almost none of the public land is landlocked.

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Deer draw odds (11)Elk draw odds (17)Odds and pins: free, no account

GMU 20Full map — ownership, roads, wind →

4,820–14,220 ft

elevation range

57%

public land

35%

of public >1 mi from a road

598 ac

landlocked public

2.80

road miles per mi²

906 mi

maintained trails

Computed from primary government data by the open pipeline. See the code →

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

28 limited-entry deer and elk hunts are drawn on GMU 20: apply in the Colorado draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Deer tag · 11 draw hunts (2026)$60.18 resident · $518.41 nonresident

Elk tag · 17 draw hunts (2026)$79.33 resident · $856.65 nonresident

Plus: Qualifying license (annual small game, cheapest adult route)$38.49 resident · $104.86 nonresident

Season dates: see Colorado Parks & Wildlife's regulations

2026 Colorado Big Game brochure (rev. 2026-03-18) ↗

Colorado Parks & Wildlife — licenses and tags ↗Draw odds for Colorado deer →Draw odds for Colorado elk →How the Colorado draw works →

Fees and draw dates from Colorado Parks & Wildlife, 2026, verified 2026-08-05 — past its verify-by date, confirm with the agency. Tag type from the agency's published draw statistics: a gmu that appears in none of them has no limited-entry hunt we know of. Source: 2026 Colorado Big Game brochure (rev. 2026-03-18) · CPW primary draw · CPW refunds, reversals and exchanges · Chapter W-2 (2 CCR 406-2), approved 2025-05-07.

Land & access

■ USFS 25%■ NPS 22%■ CNTY 6%■ Other public 5%□ Private 43%

Unit area772,318 ac

Public land443,746 ac (57%)

Landlocked public598 ac (0.1%)

Deer draw pressure1.8 tags/mi² public (1.0 of total area)

Elk draw pressure1.1 tags/mi² public (0.63 of total area)

Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)3,380 mi

Maintained trails906 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road153,749 ac (35% of public)

Road density2.80 mi/mi²

Managed byUSFS 192k ac · NPS 169k ac · CNTY 45k ac

Elevation4,820–14,220 ft

Median elevation7,520 ft

Median slope11°

Where the ground sits

4,820 ft14,220 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 26%

E 33%

S 25%

W 16%

Share of ground steeper than 5° — flat ground has no facing

North slopes hold shade, cover and snow; south slopes open first.

USGS 3DEP 1 arc-second (30 m), slope at native resolution in a local metric projection, sampled on a 200 m grid. See the code →

Unit intelligence report

109,012 ac of this gmu has burned — 14% of the unit. The full report assembles it into one printable document and keeps it current as the facts change.

Open the report →

Season conditions — measured, not vibes

Historical temperatures · 2000–2025

Normals for 2000–2025 — tap or hover for a month

Measured at DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, 80 km from the unit’s center and ~2,100 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2024

41% success

355 taken by 875 hunters · 8,492 days afield

152 bulls · 198 cows · 5 calves

Elk hunter success · 2019–2024 · 41% → 41%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
1st rifle	50%	11	22
2nd rifle	41%	23	55
3rd rifle	29%	10	35
4th rifle	35%	15	43
Archery	32%	37	116
Muzzleloader	36%	13	37

Which season is the value play here — same ground, different odds.

Deer · 2024

41% success

811 taken by 1,994 hunters · 12,087 days afield

612 bucks · 183 does · 16 fawns

Deer hunter success · 2019–2024 · 38% → 41%

Season breakdown · 2024

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	20%	43	216
Muzzleloader	24%	23	97

Which season is the value play here — same ground, different odds.

Pronghorn · 2022

0% success

0 taken by 2 hunters · 2 days afield

0 bucks · 0 does · 0 fawns

Season breakdown · 2022

Season	Success	Harvest	Hunters
Archery	0%	0	2

Which season is the value play here — same ground, different odds.

Herd-level estimates · 95% CI

deer · DAU D-10 · 2025: 826 harvested (CI 732–932) · 44% success

elk · DAU E-9 · 2025: 428 harvested (CI 378–486) · 51% success

pronghorn · DAU A-99 · 2025: 6 harvested (CI 3–12) · 21% success

CPW’s stratified-survey estimates for the whole herd unit (DAU) this GMU belongs to — published with the uncertainty the per-GMU tables can’t carry.

CPW estimates harvest, hunters, success and recreation days from its Big Game Harvest Survey. Unit tables run 2019-2024; the 2025 report switched to per-hunt-code tables without unit totals, so unit series end at 2024 and 2025 success rates appear on the draw-odds tables instead. Source: CPW Statewide Harvest Estimates (per species-year PDFs on the species statistics pages).

How these numbers are made

public_land_pct = public_area / unit_area
landlocked = public ∖ reachable(roads, corners)
remote = public ∖ buffer(roads, 1 mi)
# AGPL — read the pipeline →

Computed, not curated: no paid research team, no opinions dressed as data. If a number looks wrong, file an issue — the fix ships for everyone.

Nearby GMUs

GMU 1969% public · 28% remote GMU 2951% public · 12% remote GMU 942% public · 0% remote GMU 1888% public · 40% remote GMU 926% public · 37% remote GMU 2870% public · 25% remote

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Everything on this page, live on the map — ownership, boundaries, roads, and your own waypoints.

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